LeBron James was King James Thursday night.For all he has done in his illustrious career, LeBron James Thursday night in Boston eclipsed himself. Already widely regarded as the game’s best and most dynamic player, James was better and more dynamic than ever, saving the Miami Heat season and crushing the Celtics’ all at once.It was a genius performance by James, magnified by the stakes: a loss in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals and the Heat’s season – expected to be so much more – would be over.James would have none of it. He notched 45 breath-taking points, 14 rebounds and five assists, and Miami forced a deciding Game 7 with a dominating 98-79 victory. Now, the advantage goes back to the Heat, who host the game that will determine who will face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals.This was all made possible by James, the league’s MVP who has been branded by some as a failure in clutch situations. Well, there was not a more important game than Thursday night, facing elimination on the road and a heap of inevitable criticism with failure.In fact, there was talk that coach Eric Spoelstra could be fired with a defeat and that the Big Three of James, Wade and Chris Bosh could be broken up in another disappointing off-season. Pressure? It was immense.But there was no need for a last-second shot. Miami blew out the Celtics with suffocating defense and James’ assault. He was 19-for-26 from the floor, scoring 30 in the first half on 12-for-13 shooting. He scored on a dazzling array of post-ups, fadeaway jump shots and daring forays to the basket. It did not matter that Wade was invisible until late in the game; James was in command.“I just wanted to attack and do whatever it took to lead my team,” James said. “It was a must-win game for us. I’m happy we were able to put together a complete game this series. I just tried to make plays for our team. . . to give ourselves a chance to win. In an environment like this you want to have a good game. This was a gut check for us. It’s good to see we were able to bounce back after that Game 5 loss.”No one bounced higher than James.“He was absolutely fearless, and it was contagious,” Spoelstra said. “The way he approached the last 48 hours. . . nobody likes having dirt thrown on your face before you’re even dead. . . But he was fearless and everybody followed him.”There was a focus and determination on James’ face and in his game. Hardly did he whine to officials about a call. There was not a scowl to his look, but rather a purpose.Meanwhile, Boston looked sick. Paul Pierce was 4-for-18 shooting. Kevin Garnett was 6-for-14. Rajon Rondo had 21 points and 10 assists, but turned the ball over seven times. As a team, the Celtics shot just 42 percent. Overall, they just looked anemic. And they had no answer for James, falling behind by 13 at halftime and never coming closer than eight points the rest of the way.“He brought it to us and we didn’t bring it back to him,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said.read more

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees broke Johnny Unitas’ long-standing record of 47 consecutive games with a touchdown pass Sunday in front of a raucous crowd at the Mercedes Benz Bowl that included suspended head coach Sean Payton.The history-making play occurred when Brees threw a perfect pass to a streaking Devery Henderson for a 40-yard score with 2:58 left in first quarter. Brees went on to throw three more TD passes as they went on to defeat the San Diego Chargers, 31-24.“The amazing thing about a record like this is it spans over the course of really four seasons and hopefully we can keep it going to for a while,” Brees said. “There are so many people that are a part of this.”Payton and suspended coach Joe Vitt and general manager Mickey Loomis were a part of the occasion, which is way the NFL allowed them to attend the game. The three men sat in a private area of the dome. All are serving lengthy suspensions in connection with NFL’s bounty investigation this past summer. Joe Unitas was also on present to see his father’s record broken.Brees eclipsed the record in the spectacular fashion passing for 370 years and four touchdowns, which put him over 30,000 yards in his 100th game as a Saint.“I guess you really couldn’t have written a better script for tonight,” Brees said. “To break the record, to get the win, and the fashion in which we won — really a complete team effort all the way around.”The Who Dat’ nation and Twitter exploded in congratulatory tweets to Brees. Commissioner Roger Goodell tweeted on his page, “Congrats to (at)drewbrees & his teammates on breaking Unitas’ record. Amazing accomplishment by great QB & leader. We’re proud of you, Drew.”Payton said having the suspended Saints in attendance mattered.“It gave us a good mojo for sure,” Brees said. “I love my coach, so glad he could be here. Mickey and Joe Vitt as well. It is special for our team, special they could be a part of this record.”The Saints move to 1-4 on the season as they head into their bye week. Brees has the opportunity to move to 49 consecutive games with a touchdown pass when they play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 7.read more

Social media? So 2009. This year the publishing catchphrase is “marketing services” (with of course, a strong social media component). Depending on your definition, magazine publishers have always offered “marketing services,” but today that increasingly has come to mean going beyond custom publishing and targeting below-the line-budgets ranging from direct marketing and lead gen to consumer or trade promotion, events, even market intelligence. Increasingly, publishers are bypassing the agencies to work directly with the brand on the marketing message. But if the publisher now has direct access (or even input) on the marketing message, what does that mean for traditional publishing roles, such as editors and salespeople? While salespeople focus on the consultative sale rather than just slinging inventory, editors are walking that fine line between editorial independence and client obligation. Business-to-business publisher Watt is offering to develop social media strategies for clients, which includes editors doing “ghost blogs” by interviewing project managers, then writing up a blog post under the client’s brand based on that conversation. Watt is charging $100 to $200 per blog posting. McGraw-Hill considers the topic of marketing services to be a nomenclature issue, since they’ve offered similar services for generations. However, editors are becoming more targeted in both their traditional outlets as well as more client-oriented work. “Many of these services we’ve never viewed as publishing solutions,” Glenn Goldberg, president of McGraw-Hill’s Information & Media segment, tells me. “But increasingly there is a need for edit and there’s a question of how you define that. We will never mess with the independence and integrity of the edit process. There are some immutable truths to doing editorial properly. People are making big ticket decisions based in large part on edit, and you want the best people offering an independent view.”Having said that, Goldberg, continues “We need to deliver value in a lineup of other products and services. With AviationWeek, for example, we have wonderful journalists who know the business but we also know there are certain needs those customer segments have. We won’t tell them what to write but based on that knowledge there are needs that customers want written about. The days of editors saying ‘I want to write about this’ are numbered.” To some extent, that’s always been the case. Editors have always been bound to the editorial calendar and if you’re not writing about topics that at least appeal to advertisers, there’s no advertising. But editors increasingly will be expected to not just write about that category but provide content or at least market expertise for specific clients. On the bright side, maybe it means more job security. And as management sees edit shift from cost center to revenue producer, who knows–maybe it means a bump in pay too.read more

A seven-year-old schoolgirl was crushed to death by a bus on Sylhet-Fenchuganj road at Dharampur village in South Surma upazila of Sylhet on Friday, reports UNB.The deceased is Jahan Mahia, a second grader and daughter of Md Helal Ahmed of Gopalgaon village in the upazila.Witnesses said the Kulaura-bound bus hit the minor girl at the place around 2:00pm soon after she got down from a human hauler, leaving her dead on the spot.Later, police recovered the body from the spot and handed it over to family members.